Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 48 — page 133: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION throughout the world would be difficult to calculate. It is nice to know that Britain, in which radioactivity was dis- covered, is supplying the raw material for the acquisition of so much new knowledge. HOW DO WE SMELL? Physiologists and chemists alike have always been baffled by the different types of odour that are distinguished by the human nose. The physiologists have not been able to find an explanation in the taste buds (which register only salt, sour, sweet and bitter) and the chemists have been unable to relate the structure of compounds to their odours. From recent work carried out by Dr. E. D. Adrian at Cambridge, it seems that the major diff- culty was the philosophical approach. Scientists, Dr. Adrian believes, have been looking at the problem from the wrong point of view, including himself. His experi- ments indicate that it is the nerve cells themselves which differ in their chemistry and . which, therefore, react differ- ently to different chemical stimuli. These nerve cells are actually in the brain. By inserting electrodes into them, he has found that some cells discharge when one stimula- tor is used, and other cells, maybe adjacent to the first, discharge when other stimuli are used. Whereas tradi- tional physiology looked upon all cells having one function (olfactory, in this case) as having one response, the new view which Dr. Adrian puts forward, and which will un- doubtedly be accepted in the light of his results, looks upon each cell as a chemical entity, capable of responding to its own particular “ complemen- tary stimulus.’ It seems that at last we are getting near a solution to the age-old prob- lem of how we smell—tran- sitively speaking ! THE GREEN OF MARS There has been much dis- pute about whether the green areas of Mars are caused by 132 ConnicloOolkks. Com) ‘ “ ~ ah < oaks Pint ig, ee adie tls - a ea er ar. ore . . hee Creed 0p ed Sri een oy te